Hanoi (VNA)- ꦚAccording to Mr. Le Tien Truong, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Vietnam National Textile and Garment Group (Vinatex), the localization rate of Vietnam’s garment and textile has reached 57 percent, nearing the 2025 target of 60 percent.

Exports record impressive growth

According to Vinatex, Vietnam's garment-textile industry hit an export turnover of about 30.2 billion USD, a 20 percent increase year on year, and the highest in the past 10 years. The latest data of the General Department of Customs showed that all imported materials and accessories for the apparel sector were estimated at about 13 billion USD (excluding about 1.5 billion USD of accessories for the leather and footwear industry). Vietnam's garment-textile industry generated 17 billion USD, a trade surplus from exports. Of this, only about 6.5 billion USD is the salary for workers. The balance is nearly 11 billion USD. This is used to purchase raw materials and auxiliary materials in the country. “Besides generating turnover, the textile and garment industry also creates impetus to recover many businesses of different types,” said Mr. Le Tien Truong. Notably, although the textile and garment industry ranks fourth in export turnover, the trade surplus of textiles and garments always ranks first. For example, in 2021, it will reach about 20 billion USD. Among textile and garment exporting countries, Vietnam has the earliest opening policy for normal operations compared to Bangladesh, India and China. In the first half of this year, Vietnam's garment-textile industry took advantage of such a great opportunity to secure abundant orders with high efficiency. “This is a positive sign of implementing such policies that opened the market door and supported workers to resume their production as soon as possible.”

Investment towards green economy

Currently, countries have also opened their borders and resumed normal production as well as implemented measures to support interest rates for businesses. This is due to the fact that global demand has dropped sharply due to the economic downturn caused by COVID-19. In the first eight months of the year, the garment-textile industry is estimated to be able to export 3.7-3.8 billion USD per month. In the last four months, the sector is projected to export 3.1-3.2 billion USD, according to Truong. To support the garment-textile industry, he proposed a number of solutions such as considering the purchase of domestic goods for export, conducting post-inspection, and increasing the ability to consume domestic goods by not forcing the payment of VAT and import tax in advance. For the medium term, Vinatex plans to invest in innovation in the direction of promoting the green economy and a circular economy. “However, this requires big investment, and when put into operation, the production cost can be very high,” Truong said. Vietnam expects to earn 45.7 billion USD from garment-textile exports this year. Some 14,000 businesses are operating in the sector, with combined capital of over 1.1 quadrillion VND (46 billion USD) and net profits, nearly 1 quadrillion VND. They employ approximately 200,000 labourers. Vietnamese garment-textile products were shipped to 55 countries and territories worldwide, including 17 markets with a turnover of more than 100 million USD each. The US, Japan, the Republic of Korea (RoK), Canada, China, Germany and Cambodia were major buyers of the Vietnamese products./.